Standing in the crowd at this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival waiting for Run the Jewels to play, I casually looked down at a can of Coors Banquet Beer and could hardly believe my eyes. Right there on the can was a small nutrition facts label. It was very small and a bit hard to read, but it was there, and this was the first time I had ever seen one on any sort of alcohol.

During a quick trip down the beer aisle at a local grocery store a few days later, I noticed that other beer cans had similar labels, though some were in the form of a sentence touting average nutritional values.

As a dietitian who is very familiar with the Food and Drug Administration’s strict rules governing everything down to the font size of a nutrition facts label, I was surprised to find such variety. So, I dug a little deeper.

Let’s start with the government agencies that regulate food and alcohol: The FDA regulates all food products and, with a few exceptions for low-alcohol wines and beer not made with hops, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, regulates wine, spirits and malt beverages (beer).

Why does this matter? Products regulated by the FDA must abide by strict labeling guidelines, such as an ingredients statement; a nutrition facts label listing nutrients and vitamins; and a declaration of major allergens including but not limited to milk, egg, fish and peanuts.

Because most alcohol is regulated by the TTB, it is not required to have a nutrition facts label. So, why are some breweries choosing to put this information on beer cans anyway?

Part of it goes back to the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, the ACA amended the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to require restaurants with 20 or more locations to provide calorie and other nutrition information for standard menu items, including alcoholic beverages. Having the nutrition information for beer and alcohol readily available could be helpful to restaurants as they comply with these menu labeling requirements that went into effect in May.

The other part is that in 2016, the Beer Institute, a national trade association representing some companies that produce and import beer sold in the United States, announced the Brewer’s Voluntary Disclosure Initiative, which encourages brewers and importers to voluntarily include a serving facts statement and freshness dating.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors, Constellation Brands and Heineken, which produce more than 80 percent of the beer sold in the U.S., agreed to begin providing consumers more nutritional information about the beers they sell.

According the Beer Institute’s website, the initiative "will provide consumers with meaningful information and will ultimately empower their decision making regarding the beverages they choose."

Nutrition facts labels do help us make informed decisions about what we are putting in our bodies. Depending on your needs, you may pay attention to different parts of the food label more than others. For instance, people with both type 1 and 2 diabetes pay attention to the amount of carbohydrates in food because carbohydrates break down into glucose, which affects blood sugar.

But while there is evidence that a 5-ounce glass of wine or 12-ounce beer a day can provide heart-healthy antioxidants, most people are not drinking alcohol because it’s healthful.

In the end, most consumers are aware that beers, especially craft beer, span a wide range of calorie content. If and when breweries decide to display this information on their packaging, will it have an impact on purchasing decisions, or will people simply carry on enjoying their favorite beverage without worrying too much about their waistline?

Contrary to popular belief, darker beers don’t always equal more calories. The fermentable sugar in the majority of craft beer comes from malted barley that has been germinated and roasted. The color of beer is directly related its malt content. A lightly-roasted malt will produce a very pale beer. A deeply roasted malt will produce dark or black beers. Just like with cooking, roasting something longer does not give it more calories.

The two mains things that do contribute calories to beer is alcohol content and carbohydrates. Every gram of alcohol present contributes about 7 calories. Generally, the higher the alcohol content, the more calories present in beer.

Carbohydrates present in beer are sugars left over from the fermentation process. When the yeast eats the sugar that was extracted from the grains in the brewing process, it doesn’t eat all the sugar. That residual sugar contributes calories to beer. To get an accurate calorie count from carbohydrates, you need to know how much sugar was present in the unfermented beer (original gravity or OG) and how much sugar is left in the beer after it’s fermented (final gravity or FG), and very few brewers provide this detailed information.

If calculating calories in the beer interests you, there’s a simple formula you can use. On average, there’s about 2.5 to 3 calories for every percent of alcohol by volume (ABV) in beer. A four-percent pilsner has 10 to 12 calories per ounce; a 12-ounce serving will have 120 to 144 calories.

That six-percent American IPA? A bit heartier, clocking in between 180 and 216 calories for 12 ounces. It’s important to note that a serving size of beer is defined as 12 ounces, but when you go out, beer is often on draft and served in a 16-ounce pint.